FC Barcelona and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Team Up to End Polio and Give Every Child an Equal Shot at Life

Futbol Club (FC) Barcelona,FC Barcelona Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation kicked off a three-year partnership today to energize the global fight to end polio and draw attention to the promise of life-saving vaccines. Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with FC Barcelona President Sandro Rosell and Manager Josep Guardiola, announced the partnership at the Newseum in Washington, DC. They were joined by players Andres Iniesta and Seydou Keita.

The first year of the partnership will focus on polio eradication. Polio has been reduced globally by 99 percent and is one of the best examples of the value of life-saving vaccines. The disease once crippled children worldwide, but there are now just four countries–Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan–where polio transmission has never been stopped.

“We have the chance to score a big win against polio, but we need loud and passionate voices to join the fight,” said Gates. “FC Barcelona’s commitment to using sport for social good will help us rally support for vaccines and end polio once and for all.”

FC Barcelona – with 18 million Facebook fans and multiple Twitter channels with millions of followers – will engage its followers through social media. In-stadium advertisements and announcements during matches will highlight the tremendous opportunity the world has to end

African Union Welcomes South Sudan as the 54th Member State of the Union

In accordance with the provisions of Article 29 (1) and (2) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union with respect to the process of accession to the Constitutive Act and admission as a Member State of the Union, and following a request by the Republic of South Sudan to become part of the African Union family of Member States, the Commission has received the requisite number of written communications supporting the admission of South Sudan to the African Union as the 54th AU Member State.

The Gambia: Climate of fear amongst the community of human rights defenders

 PARIS, France, July 22, 2011

 Publication of an international fact-finding mission report
Gambia celebrates today its national holiday, called “Freedom Day” by President Jammeh, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), publishes an international fact-finding mission report on the situation of human rights defenders in The Gambia. On this occasion, a press conference is organised in Dakar.

Calls For Probe Into Alleged Criminal Conduct By George W. Bush

Former US President George W. Bush

The United States-based Human Rights Watch said it believes there is sufficient basis for the US government to order a “broad criminal investigation” into alleged crimes committed in connection with the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, the CIA secret detention program, and the rendition of detainees to torture.

Such an investigation, it said would necessarily focus on alleged criminal conduct by former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet.

In a report “Getting Away With Torture” published in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi on July 12, Human Rights Watch said it builds on their prior work by summarizing information that has since been made public about the role played by US government officials most responsible for setting interrogation and detention policies following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and analyzes them under US and international law.

Is NAWEC’s Financial Status In Jeopardy?

From the Public Accounts and Public Enterprise Committees (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly to the Public Hearing organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), the National Water and Electricity Company, NAWEC have been lamenting the huge sums of money it is owed.

This compelled the Company in what has been seen as a drastic move, to publish in a media dispatch the names of individuals and institutions owing it voluminous sums of monies.